


One of us now

by Mcthostrup



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Gen, Makoto Niijima Week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-18
Updated: 2017-09-18
Packaged: 2018-12-31 08:57:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12128991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mcthostrup/pseuds/Mcthostrup
Summary: Alright, here's my entry for Day 3 of Makoto Niijima Week. This time the prompt was Friends/Teammates.I really want to get a story out for each of the remaining days of the event, but it might be difficult... Anyways, hope you enjoy!





	One of us now

**Author's Note:**

> Alright, here's my entry for Day 3 of Makoto Niijima Week. This time the prompt was Friends/Teammates.  
> I really want to get a story out for each of the remaining days of the event, but it might be difficult... Anyways, hope you enjoy!

“Are you serious? You’ve really not had any strategy prior to this?!” Makoto couldn’t believe her ears. The Notorious Phantom Thieves with the insane ability to change hearts, had really just been waltzing around blindly with no plans. How utterly reckless!

She looked around at each of the members, in the hope that one of their answers would say something else. Even hidden behind his Skull-mask, Makoto could see the look of confusion on Sakamoto-kun’s face as he just looked around at the other members as well. The cat(?) just looked sheepishly at the ground and tried to give a vague explanation of their methods, but it came out extraordinarily tame and did nothing to relieve Makoto’s frustrations. The blonde girl in the red latex-suit, Ann Takamaki, nervously tried to laugh it off. Lastly, Makoto looked at the black frizzy-haired transfer student. Unlike the others, he was tougher to read, but even though that was the case, Makoto thought he looked… amused? He looked at her with eyes grey as steel, a small smirk on his lips but didn’t say anything. She didn’t know whether he found her indignation funny or the fact that they really hadn’t any plans till now. Nevertheless.

Makoto sighed. “Well then, I suppose I’ll analyze the information from Mona and give out orders based on that. Is everyone okay with that?” She said with a sharp tone.

She noticed that Sakamoto and Morgana both tensed up significantly at her intense tone. Good, made it easier for her to get through to them. Behind them she saw their supposed leader leaning against a wall, arms folded across his chest. His expression hadn’t changed at her command, he was still smirking at her. Just when she was about to ask if he had any complaints, he turned around with a flourish of his black cape.

“Let’s go.”

Makoto tensed up the moment he spoke. She had never heard anyone be able to say two words, with that much authority behind them. Around her, she saw the others had tensed up as well, but there was no sign of intimidation on their faces, like when she had spoke earlier. Instead, they were confidently smiling, as if they had done this a million times. Sakamoto did some stretches, an eye to eye wicked smile plastered across his face. Takamaki checked that SMG had plenty of ammunition in it, with more ease in her procedure than a regular highschool student should have. Morgana was ahead of the group talking about something with their leader, that Makoto couldn’t quite make out. Lastly, Kitagawa had drawn his blade and was checking it for any blemishes. When everybody had made their final preparations, one by one they followed the boy in black into the Bank of Kaneshiro.

* * *

 

 

Inside the bank, Makoto had to admit she was surprised. Saying that The Phantom Thieves were just recklessly running around doing whatever, turned out to be a complete fallacy. They might not have had a written out battleplan, but they took precaution in everything they did. They snuck around effortlessly, guided by the hand of Joker. He might not talk much, but Makoto had to admit he was a perfect leader for this team. His orders were short and precise, and carried the right amount of authority to make every one of the members follow them without even thinking. As a result, they were fluid in and out of battle and Makoto found that she didn’t need to issue any commands, Joker had that well under control. However, this left her feeling a bit unneeded. She had thought she would be taking a more active part in all this, but for now she was ordered to stay in the back with Morgana.

“Maybe they really don’t need me after all..” Makoto thought to herself, looking at the combined efforts of the thieves in taking down a giant ogre.

“Queen.” The sound of Joker’s voice calling out to her, snapped her to attention. “Can you switch with Panther for now?”

It wasn’t as much a question as it was an order, so Makoto moved up to the rest of frontline crew, joining Joker, Fox and Skull. Makoto tried not to show it, but she was excited. Excited to finally be able to show her worth and not just sit behind and let everyone else do things for her. A small smile crept up on her face, gone unnoticed by everyone but Joker, who to Makoto’s gratitude, didn’t comment on it. Instead he just ushered them to advance.

* * *

 

“Arsène!”

Makoto watched in awe, as the giant raved-winged demon man rose up, covered in blue flames from behind their leader. She had seen it from afar, but seeing it up close was something else. If Makoto had to be honest, it was terrifying. Black horns sprouting from a demonic black face, massive red boots with knives for heels and talons ending the creatures arms. But seeing it and the wicked smile on the face of Joker, something which in any other circumstance would’ve frightened her beyond recognition, instead fueled her with confidence. She turned her attention away from her impressive leader and back to the enemies in front of them, just in time to see tendrils of black energy piercing the body of one of the shadows, effectively tearing it apart from the inside. Satisfied with the hit, he quickly pondered his next move. Makoto tried to her mix of surprise and satisfaction as he looked her way.

“Queen, you’re up.”

Joker walked over to her with an arm stretched in the air. Makoto wondered just what in the world he was doing, until she remembered she had seen them do this in prior battles. When one of them got a particularly good hit in, they would pass it on to someone else. She understood that, but couldn’t they just say to whoever, that they should take over? Was the highfive really necessary? Still, she was new to the team and didn’t want to make any minor complaints, so she walked up to Joker, her own arm stretched into the air and let him highfive her. As soon as their hands touched each other and she heard the loud snap of the highfive, Makoto felt a palpable surge of energy rushing through her.

“Wait, is this why they do it? Is it a cognition thing again?” A lot of things rushed through Makoto’s head, but she decided she wouldn’t let Joker down, now that he had passed it to her. She got into position and unleashed the rebel within her, calling forth Johanna.

“Charge, Johanna!” Makoto watched as blue light gathered around the wheels of Johanna and in a flash, surged towards the remaining shadow. The bolts of blue crashed into the last enemy, slaying it and ending the battle. Makoto had to stop for a second, amazed at how great that felt. She had struck enemies in battle before, but this was different. Was this also because of the highfive? She made a mental note to ask about it later. For now, they needed to proceed.

They made great progress through the bank, working in tandem to dispatch various enemies along the way, and Makoto gradually got more and more used to the way the Thieves did things. After they had been at it for a while, Makoto and the rest of them spotted Kaneshiro in front of an elevator talking to a guard, who was significantly larger than the others they had fought so far.

_“Petty thieves! I can’t believe you’ve really made it this far. No matter, my security system is impeccable. Get them!”_ Shadow Kaneshiro shouted at the guard in front of him and retreated into the elevator behind him.

The guard imploded and dissolved into black ooze, from which a shadow arose, ready for battle. Seeing Kaneshiro had reignited Makoto’s fury and she wanted to get this battle over with quickly. She got into position alongside the others and began wailing on the shadow blocking their path. The shadow turned out to be more resilient than expected, and Makoto was getting frustrated.

“Goddamnit, this is going nowhere! Just how strong is this thing? It feels like we ar-“, in her frustration she didn’t notice the surges of purple light coming towards, and hadn’t heard the warnings from her teammates.

“Huh? Where am I? What’s going on?” everything around was dark, she couldn’t see any of the other thieves. BOOM. Makoto jumped at the sound of thunder. She could hear rain all around, she could hear the sirens outside her house, she could see the police officer talking to Sae, she remembered the message they got that night, ‘Your father is dead’. BOOM. Another crack of thunder and Makoto was now sobbing, just like she had been back then. She was alone again. Still nothing but darkness. BOOM. Makoto tried to block out the sound of thunder by putting her hands over her ears.

“Where am I?! Where is everyone?! Someone?” BOOM. “KYAAAH! Someone please save me. Sis? Dad? Someone please?”

“Mak… han… n… the…”

Huh?

“Makoto! Makoto! Wake up!”

Makoto snapped her eyes open. She was curled up in a ball, with something folded around her. Not knowing what it was, Makoto thrashed around, trying to break free.

“Queen! Don’t worry, I’m here for you.”

At the sound of their leaders voice, Makoto stopped her thrashing and looked around her. Turns out it was Jokers arms that was folded around her. She looked up at him and caught onto steelgrey eyes full of worry, no longer hidden behind his mask. When she locked eyes with him, her body started to relax and she began breathing less erratically.

“Are you alright?”

Makoto quickly broke free from his embrace and got on her feet. She turned her back to him, ashamed to have fallen into such a pathetic state, and embarrassed because of his embrace.

“I-i-m fine. Where are the others?” Makoto tried to hide the shaking in her voice, but couldn’t quite do it.

“They went ahead to scout a bit. Are you sure you’re okay?” Akira looked at her with a concerned expression.

“Y-yes, I’m positive. Now, shall we continue?” Makoto responded, her back still turned to him.

“No, we’re returning for today. We’ve made good progress and I can tell some of us are tired. Good work today.”

Makoto was very quiet on the way back from the palace, still ashamed of herself. Her first time joining them on the frontlines and she had messed up like that. She was so frustrated with herself, and the others were probably even more annoyed at her. They could’ve gone a lot further but she had screwed it up.

“Makoto? Can I talk with you?” Makoto looked up to see Akira had walked over to her, but quickly looked down at her feet again. She couldn’t tell what he was thinking in the real world.

“I truly apologize for today Joker. You put your faith in me and I failed you. We could’ve gone a lot further in, if I hadn’t messed up. I promis-“

“That’s not it.”

Makoto looked up from her own feet, confused at what he was saying.

“I wanted to see if you were really okay? And besides, there are a lot of shadows capable of inflicting those kinds of effects, it’s happened to every one of us and it was bound to happen to you at some point.” Akira looked at her from behind his glasses.

“But if I hadn’t messed up.“ Makoto continued.

“That doesn’t matter. We’ve got plenty of time to do this. We don’t need to clear the entire palace in a single day, that’s too much to ask. I’d much rather secure my friends’ safety, physically and mentally. That includes you.” At his last sentence, he took of his glasses and looked Makoto straight in the eyes. Makoto was taken a bit aback by this, as his gaze was intense, but filled with concern.

“Friends?”

“Of course. You may have just joined, but that doesn’t make you any less one of us than the others. We’re relying on you, your intelligence and strength. So in return, please know that you can rely on us as well, alright?”

“R-right.” Makoto answered meekly.

Akira nodded, not quite satisfied with her answer, but he didn’t want to push her further.

“Goodnight Makoto.”

“You too.”

As Makoto walked home after her conversation with Akira, a smile crept itself up on to her face.

“Friends, huh?”

 


End file.
